Happy Holidays

Once again, it’s been a busy time since I was here last! We’ve had Thanksgiving, which went quite well, and then on December 7th we picked up Stitch, a two month old Netherland Dwarf baby who is disgustingly cute. On December 8th, our previous two buns, Cynnamon and Snooki, were fighting in their cage, badly enough that Cynnamon’s fur was everywhere in the cage. We thought that Snooki was barbering her. So we dragged the dog crate into the bedroom and moved Cynnamon into it for the sake of peace. At that point, I went to watch tv, and didn’t return to the dimly lit bedroom for three hours. When I did, I saw this large, unmoving pile in front of Cynnamon. It looked, in the dim light, as though one of the dogs had used the bathroom, except that it was inside the crate. Turning on another light, I discovered five kits had been born to Cyn! My first thought was that she had been pregnant when we got her, but after a glance in my textbooks, I discovered that the gestation period for rabbits is only 31 days. Well, she’d been with us for well over 60 days, and the only other rabbit she had come into contact with was (you guessed it) Snooki. We have clearly ascertained now that despite the vet’s claims otherwise, Snooki is well and truly male. Everyone has now been moved into separate cages! And the babies will be ready for new homes January 15. I will have pics in another post.

A week after that, I went into the hospital to finally have hip replacement surgery. To use Viper’s phrase from Top Gun, I am not going to sit here and blow sunshine up your…ahem. The chiropractor says HRS is not major surgery. My hip begs to differ. It may not be major to the orthopedist performing it, but my body and I see it from another perspective! There may come a day when I am all aglow and praising this surgery to the skies. Today is not that day. Today, I still find it hard to believe that people voluntarily do this twice. Percocet is a wonderful drug, let me tell you, and I have kept myself from using it too much, unless desperate. And there have been those days. There are so many restrictions immediately after surgery. No stretching, or bending at the waist. Everything must be at waist height, or you’d best get someone to get it for you. No twisting. Don’t turn your toes inward.

You suddenly realize that on some level, every muscle in your body is connected to that hip somehow. Everything hurts. You can’t sleep on that side. You really can’t sleep on your good side either, because you cannot cross your legs. You are going to be sleeping on your back or your face. There is no other option. For me, since I’m apnic, that meant my only option was sleeping on my tummy.

I have steel staples in uncomfortable places.

But I managed to do most of Christmas dinner despite all this. The dogs have learned to fear the dreaded walker. The girls are fabulous nurses. I have rarely been alone since leaving the hospital on the 18th. Aneira makes sure I practice with the walker, and Bryony makes sure to bring me anything I might need.

Speaking of Bryony, she turned six yesterday!!! My babies are growing up much too fast for me.

I did take my crochet with me to the hospital so I could work on the C2C throw, and finished the C2C part recently. Now I’m working on the border, using something I discovered only today: the camel stitch. Crochet Crowd has a great video of the stitch. They make it look easy, and it technically is, but your needle isn’t going into any of the common areas where you work a stitch. Oh, nooooooo. You’re going behind it. Like I said, seeing where the needle has to go is easy-peasy. Getting it there? Not so much. Because it’s an area not normally worked as a stitch, the tension is higher, which means getting the needle in is harder. My advice is to use a smaller needle than you have been. But it’s giving the border of my afghan a very pretty look.

Well, time to give in to the Percs and get some sleep. I will try to post bunny pics tomorrow!